New Year's programming: Dropping balls, bowls and marathons

Share this:

TV options for making the end of 2009 more celebratory and nursing your hangover as you usher in 2010:

Festivities

The granddaddy of New Year’s Eve TV, “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” kicks off at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. Host Ryan Seacrest and Clark will do an hour in primetime from Times Square, then return at 11:30 to watch the ball drop and usher in the new year. Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas will check in from Las Vegas. Scheduled performers include Jennifer Lopez, Daughtry, the Peas, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.

NBC has “New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly” at 10 and 11:30 p.m. Jay-Z, Rihanna and Green Day are scheduled to perform.

On FOX, Carmen Electra hosts “New Year’s Eve Live” from Las Vegas at 11 p.m. with performances from “American Idol’s” Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta as well as Sean Kingston. Eva Longoria Parker and Kim Kardashian are also scheduled to appear.

Univision will air “Feliz 2010” with host Don Francisco from 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.

ESPN has a different kind of New Year’s Eve special. On “New Year, No Limits,” X Games fixture Travis Pastrana will attempt a world-record rally car jump in Long Beach, Calif. The show airs at 11 p.m. ET/8 PT.

MTV will count down the “Top 9 of ’09” with Adrienne Bailon and the cast of “Jersey Shore” at 11 p.m.

BET’s “106 & Park” morphs into “106 & Party” from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.

On New Year’s morning, the tradition that is the Tournament of Roses Parade will air on ABC, NBC, HGTV, TLC, the Travel Channel and the Hallmark Channel. Check your local listings for times.

“Burn Notice” is running all day and night Thursday on USA, followed by 20 hours of “Law & Order: SVU” starting at 10 a.m. Friday.

Lifetime is showing several of its original movies all day Thursday and
will ring in 2010 with a marathon of Jennifer Aniston movies starting
at 11 a.m. Friday. The lineup includes “The Good Girl,” “Friends with
Money,” “Derailed” and “The Break-Up.”

You can watch “Las Vegas” on TNT until 7 p.m. ET Thursday, and then again for three more hours after an NBA doubleheader. A passel of action/horror movies, including “Anaconda,” “Underworld” and “Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” kicks off at 9 a.m. Friday.

Get your fill of blows to the head with AMC’s “Three Stooges” marathon, which began Thursday morning and runs till 6 a.m. Friday.

A&E will deliver 20 episodes of “Criminal Minds” in a row starting at 8 a.m. Friday for those needing a serial-killer fix.

Syfy is running one of its typically massive holiday “Twilight Zone” marathons through 6 a.m. Saturday.

Discovery takes you into the “Ghost Lab” all day and night Thursday and starts the new year with 18 hours of “Mythbusters” at 9 a.m. Friday.

Turner Classic Movies will help you toast the new year with all six “Thin Man” movies — in which William Powell and Myrna Loy are rarely without a drink in hand — beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 PT Thursday.Follow Zap2it on Twitter and Facebook for the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.